Million Dollar Tip #1: Money is Value

This is Tip #1 of the Million Dollar Tip Series. If you have financial goals in life, you’ll find this series a perfect resource to achieve them.

What are your money making goals? How much do you want to earn?

Whether you want to earn $1, $10,000, or $1 million dollars, the first thing is to recognize money as what it is – a medium for value exchange.

Money = Value

What does this mean? It means that if you want to earn $10,000, you should stop thinking about your goal in terms of “I want to earn $10,000″ or “How can I get people to pay me $10,000?”. Rather, you should think about it in terms of “How can I create $10,000 worth of value to others? How can I bring about $10,000 worth of value to this world?”

That’s because money, is value. To gain $X of money, you have to give $X of value to the world. That’s how the universe works; that’s how the natural order of things is maintained. Of course there may be one-off exceptions where people gain $X money despite not giving $X value, but these are more hoax cases and not self-sustainable. It’s a matter of time before the invisible hands of the universe comes into play, and nullifies the situation.

When I first realized this years ago (I was reading Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles, which you should definitely check out if you want to achieve financial abundance in your life – It shares the fundamental principles one should know before embarking on his/her financial goals), it brought about a big paradigm shift for me. Suddenly, instead of thinking about money in terms of physical cash I need to get, or as a figure in my bank account I need to achieve, or as a status symbol to be acquired, I suddenly saw money as what it really is, for the first time in my life – sheer, unadulterated value.

If I am to try to describe it, it’s like value itself is shapeless and formless, and money has always been just a form, a symbol, that society use to represent value, so it’s easy for us to carry out transactions (much like how we created time so it’s easier to relate our lives to one another). Physical cash – dollar notes – is just a physical token we use to represent value. Whenever people talk about money, what they’re really talking about is value – how to acquire it so he/she can use it to do things that he/she enjoys (hence using the value for his/her gratification), and how to create value so that others will want to pay money for it (hence gaining value via helping others improve their lives). It’s a delicate order of the universe.

To Earn $X, Create $X Value

I began to think about how I could deliver $X value to the world, in accordance with my monetary goals. Instead of thinking how I needed to earn $X in cash, I started thinking about how I was going to create $X in value to others out there. I knew that as long as I create this $X in value, the money would naturally come my way. Receiving the physical cash is merely a natural consequence that happens after creating and delivering $X value to others.

In the event where that didn’t happen, it would only mean that (a) I wasn’t delivering $X in value, which would then be a cue for me to become better and deliver more value to others, or (b) I wasn’t accurately conveying the value I was delivering to others, which would then be a cue for me to correct that perception, or (c) it was not within the means of the people to afford $X, even though they saw its value – in which case I should be speaking to the appropriate audience that was willing to and able to reciprocate the value offered.

Hence, when I first started Personal Excellence and my personal development business, I wasn’t concerned about the long-term revenue-generation prospects at all. Most people would probably wonder – “How much can you earn from coaching? Hardly anyone would seek out a coach. What exactly can you earn from running a blog? There are so many other bloggers out there trying to make money. How much can you actually earn from speaking? There are so many freelance speakers out there today and none of them really earn much, if at all.” And a myriad of other fear-based questions surrounding finances and sustainability of the business.

Yet to me, those weren’t concerns at all. It was clear to me then (and today) that the revenue-generation prospects (of anything, really) are limitless, capped only by the value I’m able to give to others. If I am to find myself in a fix where I’m not earning enough money, that just means that I’m not creating enough value for others. The solution would then be to improve myself, upgrade my skills, put others before me, and think about how I can create more value for them. It’s as simple as that.

Likewise, regardless of what you want to do in life, there is no limit to how much you can earn, regardless of the path you choose. The revenue-generation potentials is independent of what you do. It’s got everything to do with how much value you’re bringing to the world, and nothing to do with how lucrative that career path may seem.

For example, many people see painting as a hobby that’ll never earn anyone money, but the top painters earn more money than we can imagine. People think of singing as a non-career, but some of the top earners today are musicians and singers. The same goes for every other profession and field, be it baking, drawing, teaching, acting, training, fitness, diving, writing, blogging, pet care, photography, videography, and so on. It’s all about the value you can create to the world out there. As long as you learn how to create massive value via your work, people will want to pay you for that.

If you want to earn $10,000, $100,000, or $1 million dollars, my question to you is – How can you create this $X of value to others out there? Is it via a simple product? An easy service? A life-changing idea? A series of products and services? What can you do to that’ll help change their lives for the better? The more value you create, the more you’ll earn. The more you can positively improve their lives, the more they’ll want to pay/invest in your work.

Likewise, if you want to earn $10 million dollars, think about how you can create $10 million of value to others. And if you want to earn $1 billion dollars, shift that thought further to “How can I create $1 billion of value to others in this world?”.

The physical cash you earn is a result of you creating real value for others, not the other way round. As long as you keep this principle in mind, you’ll go very far in your revenue generation goals.

Your Task: Recognize Money is Value

Your task for today is to start thinking about ways to achieve your financial goals, via first thinking in terms of the value you are going to create for others (vs. thinking in terms of “How can I earn $XX?”, which is just a circular thought).

Think over the following questions, and down your answers in your notebook:

Embrace Your Financial Goal – What is your biggest financial goal now? How much do you want to earn?

Step of Awareness – Stop seeing this goal as a monetary, financial goal – Rather, start seeing it in terms of the value you’ve to create in the world. Spend a few minutes to visualize this if needed.

Act of Creation - How do you intend to create this $X of value to others? Brainstorm on as many ways as possible. Some helping questions:

What are some of the biggest needs of people out there today? How can you address these needs?

What can you offer/create that will change others’ lives for the better?

How can you improve/change their lives by $X? The degree to which you improve their lives will reflect the value they’re willing to pay in return for your work/product/service.

This is Tip #1 of the Million Dollar Tip Series. If you have financial goals in life, you’ll find this series a perfect resource to achieve them.